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Show UIK l-KITI NNH AM) Til V. MOTIVE, The more wo consider the Old Fort block proposition the more convinced we are of the utter dishonesty of the opposition to it. There is no need of refuting the poor man's argument; that has been done by Councilman Paiisons in a way leaving nothing to be added. Now wo are told by tho obstructionists that the wealthy men, tho bankers aud taxpayers, object to the sale. V hy not name them? Mr. ISacon's proposition proposi-tion has been peuding before the council coun-cil for nearly two weeks, during which time wo have published the names of scores of property-owners who favor the project, but we have utterly failed to see tho other side put on record. The other side is not modest in making bold assertions; why, then, hliotild it be too modest to show itself? It is the opinion of some of tho oldest real estate men that the price of tloO,-000 tloO,-000 offered for the old Fort square is all it is worth today; but whether it is or not, we believe this is a minor consideration con-sideration in view of tho benefit that is to accrue to tho city from tho Doep Creek railroad. P.ut the obstructionists obstruction-ists claim that Mr. Uacox offers no guarantee that the railroad would be built even if the block were ceded to him. What arrant nonsense this is! The proposition is straight to the point in this regard. The transfer of the property is to bo conditional upon the building of 200 miles of the road. But, say tho negative men further, if the Deep ('reek railroad is a good thing in itself, why should it depend upon the sale of a piece of real estate? We give it up, because we are more concerned to provent failure than to investigate into the causes of it. We notice there is not so much stress laid upon the neeil of a park in the vicinity vi-cinity of the old Fort block as there was at one time. The reason is obvious. The obstructionists would have to draw too heavily upon their imagination to prove that n park ever existed, or would exist, in that neighborhood. At present it is a cow pasture only this and nothing noth-ing more. Instead, tho legal objection is shoved to the foreground. There may or may not be something in this argument, but if there is we should think the objectors would rest their case on that and permit it to be determined deter-mined in the only proper tribunal provided pro-vided forin such cases, especially as Mr. Baton offers to assume all the expense of any litigation resulting from the sale. But the cloak of the devil cannot hide his cloven foot. Behind the pre-teuse pre-teuse there is the same old motive as of yore, which is to thwart the growth of the city, to smoke out tho progressive element in it, and to relegate the metropolis to the charge of tho antediluvian antedi-luvian fossils who would build a Chinese Chi-nese wall around it. It will never be done. |